Down the (Wild) Rabbit Hole with Peter Facinelli and Hennessy

Two floors of Highline Stages in Manhattan’s Meat Packing District were awash Thursday night in free Cognac and the bubbly juice of star power as Hennessy, the fine spirits company, launched its Wild Rabbit campaign. Legendary film director Martin Scorsese and neo-soul singer-songwriter, Erykah Badu and “Twilight” star Peter Facinelli were among the celebrities that were in the house as Beyonce’s little sister, Solange Knowles, DJed at a pre-party affair.

Scorsese, Badu and boxing champion Manny Pacquiao are the faces of Hennessy’s Wild Rabbit, a promotional strategy that aims to have the Hennessy brand identified with the pursuit of success with the new motto: “Never Stop. Never Settle.”

The party got started with Knowles, who commanded the turntables instead of fronting her own band, while Badu, Scorsese and a bevy of up-and-comingers posed for pictures and walked the red carpet outside of the Highline’s 15th Street entrance.

Shortly after midnight, the crowd was treated to live performances by hip-hop music producer and rapper Timbaland and longtime collaborator Missy Elliott. Badu closed out the evening with a spirited, high-energy performance included “On and On” and “Love of My Life” as well as sneak samples of her upcoming album, “Fourth World War.”

Other celebs in attendance were actress Gabrielle Union, star of the movie, “Think Like a Man” which opened Wednesday, and Twilight star Peter Facinelli. The actor talked with Speakeasy about his thoughts on the “Twilight” phenomenon, and what’s next now that the final film is due out Nov 16.

Speakeasy: How do you think “Twilight” has impacted this generation?

Facinelli: I feel really fortunate to be part of something that is such a cultural phenomenon. Very few times in a person’s career can they be part of something like that. It started out with teens going to watch it and I’ve seen it grow. I’ve seen people from age six to age 70 now grow to love it. And men and women are now enjoying it.

Do you think you’ll always be identified with the role as an actor?

It’s part of my body of work . I look so different than my characters I don’t think anyone is going to ever going to look at me and go there Carlyle . That was a very distinct character the other characters that I play hopefully will be as distinct. When I signed on to the Twilight saga I’d done a teen movie when I was younger called Can’t Hardly Wait and a lot of people identified me with that role . It stood the test of time .it’s been playing for 10 years on tv and that character is so distinct and how that character is going to play Carlyle because they’re completely opposite . So my job as an actor was to leave a stamp with Carlyle and that audience a distinct performance that they can walk away with that and my next role is to leave a distinct mark so they can walk away with that character as well.

What new projects are your working on?

We’re in season four (with Nurse Jackie) I have a production company with four film in development so we’re in script phase right now on those. One of them I wrote we just set up with a company, we’ll probably do those this summer. I’m taking a more hands on approach to things in my career.